March 11, 2018

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Fort Langley

by swebackpacker

Fort Langley is the birth place of British Columbia but also the reason British Columbia is Canadian and not belongs to United States. Since I was staying in Langley I had only a couple of km to the fantastic Fort Langley National historic site. This National historic site is well worth a visit even if you are staying in Vancouver downtown area about 50 km away.

Fort Langley was built 1827 as a trading post for Hudson Bay Company located on the banks of Fraser River. It was on the trade route for the British Empire to a large aboriginal population in British Columbia. In the beginning it was a trade station for bringing furs to Great Britain and European consumer goods to the local people.Fort Langley

However in 1858 this was changed when gold was found in Fraser River valley. The Americas was threatening to take over the whole area since 30 000 gold miners flooded into Fraser River valley. At what time Governor James Douglas proclaimed the Colony of British Columbia. 1871 British Columbia become a province in Canada.

The Governor James Douglas appointed regional Constables, Chief Inspectors of Police and a network of intelligence officials trying to suppress unlawful acts during the gold rush years. He even created Chief Gold commissioners and Assistant Gold commissioners.

Fort Langley Historical site is a great opportunity to learn about aboriginal people life from 1821 to 1871. You can see how furs was stored and packed for deliveries to Europe, how carpenters and black smith worked.

There are different furs beaver, otters, foxes, wolfs, bear, lynx. They are packed in packages weighting about 43 kilo.

You can see live demonstrations with costumed interpreters describing the life at Fort Langley, guided tours every day at 11:00 am and 03:00 pm. The history tour lasts for about 30 minutes.

We are in the Fort Langley main building in the entrance are a safe and of course a scale from the gold rush days.

In one of paintings, Governor James Douglas seems to be in the middle of the painting. He brought thirteen children to the world but only sex lived to adulthood.

Cloths, a stove and a kettle from good old days at Fort Langley main building!

A set table in the dining room with the best porcelain one can find at that time!

The last picture is from the house of servant and working people in Fort Langley. The Fort Langley village has many old buildings as well and are known from my televisions series and films such as Vampire diaries, Supernatural and Once Upon a time.